About “Serve the Servants”

In Utero’s opening track is a message to Kurt’s father, whom he did not have a good relationship with.

Initially, this song was about coming of age during a time where you’re old enough to support yourself without the aid of your parents, a theme for the twenty-somethings. I’ve always felt that a person doesn’t necessarily have to force themselves to love their parents simply because of blood. If you don’t like your parents or relatives, don’t fake it. Tell them how you feel and in my own way, I decided to let my father know that I don’t hate him. I simply don’t have anything to say and I don’t need a father-son relationship with a person whom I don’t want to spend a boring Christmas with. In other words, I love you. I don’t hate you. I don’t want to talk to you.
-excerpt from Kurt Cobain’s Journals (222)